The Hells of Elysium
by ultSmarsh
Summary: Everyone dies, even the son of Hades. Welcome to Elysium, where only the heroic live. Yet, in the depths of the Underworld, not everything is paradise..
1. Prologue

Somehow, he had died last. When he was younger, Demeter had always picked on him for not eating enough grains, and he always resembled a ghast. Sunken cheekbones, eyes that gazed menacingly from beneath sagging eyelids- old age did Nico di Angelo no favors. His hair had lost its black luster years ago, and now he looked about as young as Jules-Albert.

And yet, here he lay dying, with only his father standing by his side, icy hand in hand. He looked up and saw Hades, still a middle-aged man. What an odd sight to look older than your father, Nico thought. Around him, the dimly lit candles flickered. Hades always had a flourish for the dramatic, opting to use finger-bone candles crafted with the fat of Tartarus victims. He closed his eyes. It had been a long life, hadn't it?

After Gaea slept again, so many decades ago, the world had changed. And as the years slipped by, they had many adventures together, but death eventually claimed each one of them slowly, but surely.

Will was first, and so young. Nico's first boyfriend, and also his last- after he died, to Nico's ears, no guy could compare to the blonde's sunny voice, laughing and speaking in that soft fashion he always did. Of course the selfless young man died doing what he loved- during a particularly bad Ebola outbreak, he had flown out to Cuba.

 _"Babe, I'll be back next week, promise." Will smiled back at him from the doorway, and leaned in for a quick kiss, but the edges of his face were blurred by memory._

 _"I- I don't know. I have a bad feeling about this," Nico said, fiddling with his necklace._

 _Will laughed softly and pulled Nico in for a hug. "Mom, you say that every time." His bright blue eyes shone back at Nico, dipping a bit when he saw the uncertain frown on his face. "Lighten up, I gotta go to the airport now. Love you as always!"_

His gray fingers drifted gently over the necklace he always carried in his pocket. Will had given it to him for his 20th birthday. It was a sun, crafted out of solid gold. Will had his friend Lou enchant it for him, so that there was always a shadow on the sun that pointed out what time it was.

It was 3:26 when Will had died in a Cuban hospital, alone.

He had cried himself to sleep for years, but as time slowly wiped his tears, all he felt now was a slight discomfort in the corner of his eyes.

Percy, Annabeth, and their daughter - a freak accident involving a hellhound, a portal, and Manhattan. Although he had long been over Percy, Nico was still close friends with the handsome man. Interestingly enough, he had grown to become closer with Annabeth, as they both discovered a passion for law- she loved real estate, while Nico specialized in prosecution, especially murder cases.

Before the hellhound erupted into their bedroom when they were sleeping, Nico had spent an afternoon with Annabeth.

 _They lay down, side by side, poring through Annabeth's ancient collection. In another room, their daughter Zoe was screaming as Percy tickled her; them both laughing, a symphony of giggles._

 _Annabeth frowned as she pressed a button on the floor, and the vacuum sound system enveloped them in silence._

 _"Hey Annie, look at this." Nico shifted over a bit, pointing his finger at a line in the tome he was reading._

 _"-in 2027, Ms. Trump acquired the properties of Triple G Ranch, a stunning 500-acre plot in Houston, Texas, through a government program established by her father."_

 _Annabeth widened her eyes. For the past month, Nico had been fighting tooth and bone for a pro-bono case. On a government-gifted ranch in Texas, a guard had shot a pair of homeless teens who had tried to huddle there for the night. The case was a perfect combination of their talents._

 _She shifted her glasses up. "Oh Nico, that's gotta be it. I remember learning at Yale about a case similar to this…" She drifted off, as Percy's singing somehow broke through the sound vacuum. "Oh, shut up Seaweed."_

Luckily, most of his other friends lived past their twenties. Frank and Hazel split up in their forties, a brutal divorce suit that rocked the nation, as both had become corporate leaders. In the end, Frank was found overdosed in a cheap motel, while Hazel grew old with Nico and passed away decades later, quietly in her sleep.

Jason and Piper, true to their perfect-couple status, lived a full life as charity managers. When Piper got breast cancer at age 57, Jason watched over her in the hospital until she died, and he died of a broken heart days later.

 _Nico hadn't visited the hospital in a while, and felt bad. He had been so occupied with his law firm lately that he almost forgot that Piper and Jason existed._

 _But then Jason called in the middle of the night, as all their other friends were either dead or too far away. And Nico had come, holding a bundle of white tulips._

 _He knocked gingerly on the door marked 237. The handle opened, and Jason Grace looked out, a soft smile appearing when he saw Nico._

 _Nico had first really known Jason during that meeting with Eros, where he had come out to the blonde. Although they were never as close friends as Nico was with some of the others, he always felt a strange connection with Jason. The guy was expected to be a fierce leader and warrior, the son of Jupiter, and yet all he wanted to do was to protect and heal. Neither of them met the expectations placed on them._

 _By age 57, Grace had aged a bit, but he was still looked the second-best in the room, with his square jawline and perfect piercing eyes, he reminded Nico of Will. Of course, first place went to Piper, even if she was asleep and had tubes stuck in her neck. She looked the part of a supermodel, and even in her current state and with Nico being gay, he could still feel a pull on his heart._

 _Jason shook his head softly. "She's been like this for hours. The doctors… they don't think she'll survive the night."_

 _Nico placed his hand on her fragile arm, and he could feel her soul inching towards the Underworld. The doctors were too optimistic; she had less than a few hours left, but he didn't have the heart to tell Jason._

And finally, there were the truly lucky ones. Thalia had chosen, after decades of serving with the Hunters, to retire and die in peace. After saying her goodbyes, Artemis had tapped one finger to her forehead, and she had melted into dust; a punk teenage girl surrounded by elderly friends.

Leo and Calypso had completed some quest, something about Hera and the great Unicorn of Athens. Anyways, Hera had them both permanently instated as her lieutenants, and although Leo complained quite a bit about Hera, he and Calypso lived happy immortal lives as the eternal patrons of daughter-father relationships and bad love puns.

And finally, Reyna. Nico's own best friend, whom he had first bonded with next to a snoring satyr and Giant Athena. After Will died, she had comforted him in her own way; by standing solemnly at his door while he cried, and making sure that overemotional friends didn't bother him. She stayed single, as well; for her, Jason was her only.

And she had died doing exactly what she loved, just like Will- she died protecting people, fighting for the rights of women in the Middle East. In her sleep, a shell hit her hospital.

Now, he felt the candles go out as a sudden gust of freezing wind sifted over his pale, saggy skin. Nico opened his eyes one last time, and found Hades smiling softly down at him.

"Mio amore, you did well. I'm proud of you."

Nico di Angelo closed his eyes.


	2. Chapter 1

_Son, a lot of heroes have trouble adapting to death. To help with that, I've temporarily removed some of your memories- they will come back in time._

The last words he heard spun in his head, over and over, over and over, in a cascade of nothings muttered over and over…

So Bright. Above him, harsh sunlight poured in from somewhere up above. Somewhere nearby, the sounds of laughing and waves crashing sounded, and yet, when he opened his eyes, all he saw were a row of cartoon crabs.

"Hey man, get up. Welcome to Elysium!"

Nico turned around. Of course his first day here, he would start face-down on a beach towel. He flushed lightly at the sight in front of him. "Hi, uh, sorry is that your beach towel?"

The guy in front of him was vaguely familiar, with sandy hair that was cut short. His eyes were light blue, although if Nico squinted, he could see little specks of gold floating around. On the side of his cheek, there was a soft white line running down from his eyes, tracing down to a very attractive torso.

"Hey, you awake? If you're done staring, I can go show you around. Nico, isn't it?" The dude snapped, although his voice sounded a mix between a flirt and sneer.

Nico looked down at his chest, clad with a simple white tee. On top, a nametag hung on a chain of plastic beads- Hi My Name is: Nico :)

"Yeah I guess," he said.

The blond grinned. "It's okay, man. A lot of us are really confused when we first get here; you just died!" He raised his eyebrow hoping for a reaction, but when none came, the guy continued. "Oh, a child of Death. Hazel's gonna love you. Anyways, Elysium restores our bodies to when we were the happiest, and essentially serves as a reward for living a good life. My name's Luke, by the way. Son of Hermes."

Nico frowned as he heard the name. He had heard it somewhere, but the memory just wasn't there, no matter how deeply he reached.

The two passed a wooden gate, decorated with coconuts on top, that said "Welcome to Elysium" in bold, shining letters on top. In front of them, the road emptied into a massive pavilion where almost a whole city of buildings stood, although there seemed to be only a few people around.

Luke stopped there, and Nico bumped into his tanned back, only to leap back with a squeak and a reddening face.

He grinned down at the shorter boy. "Now, you can make yourself at home here. We don't really have many rules here; those are all left for the living. I think we earned it, don't you think? Anyways, I'll catch you later at dinner, and I can introduce you to some of my friends."

Luke sure talked fast and walked faster, Nico thought, as the blond jogged away across the sand. But damn, was he hot.

Speaking of hot people, Nico finally caught a glimpse of himself in the pool, and almost fell backwards. Gone was that old man with hallowed eyes; instead, staring back at him was how he must've been decades ago, but only prettier.

He had black hair that seemed like liquid midnight, pouring this way and that from the top of his head, with the longest strands curling right around his eyes. A pair of delicate eyes, full of naivety and wonder that he thought he had lost ages ago, rested atop his almost perfectly angular face. Even the tiny scar on his chin, from the quest with Hera's cows (long story), had completely vanished.

In other words, Nico looked absolutely delicious, even to himself. Which was a really weird, and sort of creepy way, of looking at it.

He walked a bit on the road. It was strange how, even underneath the blazingly bright sun, he felt none of the sweat he'd expect dripping down his back. Must be a perk of paradise, he thought. Even the ground was perfectly paved with obsidian that felt cool against his bare soles, and each one had a shimmering image projected on it. Two girls smiling, a curious squirrel looking up from its acorn, a businessman relaxing at a foot spa…

He bumped into something heavy, almost clad in iron.

He slowly moved his head up. Light grey fabric that clung tightly, a seam, three white buttons, a bronzed chin, a frowning mouth, and two very sharp eyes. As in, they looked as if they had been carved with a sculptor's precision, and placed there to glare at Nico.

"I don't believe we have had the pleasure of meeting yet, Nico." The man's voice sounded deep and slightly off, as if English wasn't a language he had spoken a lot of.

Nico took a small step back. The guy didn't sound dangerous, but Nico knew better than to stand too close to the mountain of muscle. "Hi, yeah I'm new here. I don't want any trouble, really, but yeah I'm Nico. And you?"

The man stared at him a second, and Nico gulped nervously at the sword hanging by the man's side. Could he even die in hell? But before he could wonder any longer, the guy laughed hoarsely and brought his hand down, clapping Nico on the back so hard he fell down to his knees.

"Oh, sorry, my bad." The man reached down to help Nico up, but he didn't seem the least bit sorry. "I'm Achilles, slayer of Hector. Nice to have you here."

Achilles's perfectly sculpted eyes glittered dangerously at him, and Nico scurried to one side and continued walking. Strange, he thought, weren't these supposed to be heroes, kind and brave?

The building ahead of them, a tall white temple with decorated marble columns lining the ceiling, almost seemed to pulse with the deafening music. Nico smiled nervously as they walked towards the party.

Luke had already introduced him to the other people, and as with Luke, Nico felt a small tug in his memory as he met each of them. There was Annabeth, a pretty blond with a sharp wit, who seemed to genuinely like Nico. She was also Luke's girlfriend, which sounded wrong for some reason in Nico's mind.

Beside her, a dark-haired guy, that smiled flirtatiously at Nico the instant they met. Glad to know that despite the preachers that ranted outside in Manhattan every day, paradise didn't discriminate.

The guy introduced himself as Perseus. This definitely made Nico feel wrong, a lot more than the others, but by now he had learned to ignore it. He was seriously hot, with a classic Renaissance man feel about him. Yet, as Nico watched closer, there was a slight shimmering effect on the guy. Sometimes he had sideburns, sometimes they faded into his skin, and Perseus seemed to shift in the light between three almost-identical, equally sexy, guys.

Annabeth caught him staring, and laughed. "Oh yeah, Perce does that sometimes. He was reborn twice already to try for the Isles, and just missed it last time."

Whatever that meant, Nico just shrugged and returned to the party. Hosted inside the Temple of Grace, Nico caught partygoers moving around and dancing to the music, which seemed to shift to whatever he wanted to hear at the time.

As he felt himself get swept into the middle of the crowd, he felt his heartbeat quicken as his body began pulsing to the addicting beat. Paradise was alright.

As the night drew on, he found himself alternating between dancing on the floor with his new-found friends, and sitting in the corner sipping Sprite. Although Luke kept assuring him that his health would remain in perfect condition no matter what he did, he still shied away from the liquor and drugs; Nico had never been a fan of drinking, as he found it dulled his senses, and he stuck to the Sprite.

And that's where he met Hazel, a curly-haired black girl who seemed all-too excited by the fact Hades had banged both their mothers.

"So like, has Hazel shown you your powers yet?" Nico flinched slightly as Perseus leaned onto his shoulder, whispering into his ears. "If not, I can show you myself. Tonight, my place?"

Nico felt his cheeks blush, an imperfection the Styx apparently didn't clean. Hazel just grinned and stuck her tongue out, giggling a bit.

He shifted a bit forward in his seat, so Perseus wouldn't notice his growing problem. "Um Perseus, maybe not yet. I'm still getting a bit used to Elysium, and I'm actually sorta interested in what Hazel was gonna show me." On that last phrase, he let a bit of sarcasm sneak into his voice.

Perseus leaned back, with his hands raised defensively. "Okay, okay, I get it. You can stay here and let Hazel teach you a few lessons." He walked away, but not before turning and giving Nico a wink. "Also, babe, you can call me Percy."

Nico grumbled as he slid back into his seat. He didn't know why, but being called 'babe' bothered him a lot.

Hazel laughed at his expression, which he guessed must've been a mix of scandal and blush. "Lighten up, bro. Percy flirts with everyone. Anyways, about your powers. You know as children of Death, we have tons of powers down here right?"

Hazel snapped her fingers, and a twirl of black mist shot from her hand towards the ceiling, forming the shape of a dragon which circled the room and landed back, curling back into her palm. A few onlookers whistled at her, and she faked a bow.

He arched an eyebrow at her. "How did you do that?"

"Just concentrate and breathe in. Can't you feel the power of the dead all around you? We're in the Underworld, and you yourself are dead, so it should be pretty easy."

Nico concentrated and closed his eyes, and as Hazel predicted, he could literally hear the souls of the damned crying from all around him. He felt a ghost prodding nearby, and plucked it out of the abyss with a tug.

He heard a shriek, and opened his eyes. In front of him, a wide radius of partygoers had jumped to the side, and Hazel stood behind him. In her eyes, he read panic and horror, and he turned around to see.

A man, decked in a full Confederate uniform, stood before him. On his chest, though, Nico could make out a gaping hole that passed cleanly through.

"A cannon shot. Remarkable, eh lad?" The soldier spoke straight at him, as if there were nobody else around.

Nico gaped his mouth at the soldier, who lurched forward at him, a musket suddenly appearing in his hand. Before he could blink, Hazel raised her hand, and the soldier lurched and melted into the ground.

He looked backwards, and Hazel stared back at him with wide eyes. "Nico, you shouldn't be able to summon the dead here. Elysium's got magic to stop any unworthy from entering."

After his stunt, the party notably toned down a bit. Hazel kept on staring at his hands as if they were somehow cursed with power, and then at Nico's face, as if he knew what he had done. And that's how Nico found himself, sneaking out from the party from underneath a cloak of shadows.

He wandered the streets, looking at the decorated buildings that lined the boardwalk. Many were shuttered, closed for the night, although he found quite a few clubs still open. Choosing one named 'The Sun Palace", he stepped in.

A few people sat at a bar, while the rest were busy dancing and grinding on the floor. Ordering another Sprite, which came with a magical dancing umbrella, he watched the dancers.

Here in Elysium, it seemed that everyone looked near-perfect. Out of the dancers he saw on the floor, he counted- a pair of twins flirting mischievously with a punk-looking girl with spiked black hair; a couple, a beefy African-American guy and a Latina, swaying to some sappy love song that definitely wasn't what Nico was hearing; a group of surfer dudes playing cards in the corner; an Asian girl caked in makeup, who even by Elysium standards was a supermodel, and had a crowd of people staring longingly at her as she danced. He even caught a few really hairy guys, with what seemed to be hooves attached to their feet.

He turned back to the bartenders, a pair of brothers who he suspected had spiked up his Sprite, not that he really minded.

One of them, the guy named Pollux, leaned over the counter. "Hey bro, everything alright? Haven't seen you here before."

Nico nodded, barely paying attention. His eyes caught one of the poker players, who seemed to have been staring at him. Shit, he was coming over.

He turned back to Pollux, who now seemed to be genuinely concerned. "Yeah, just a little tired. First day here," he lied. He heard the stool beside him shift on the ground, and it took all his resolve not to turn.

"Hey Will, how are you bro?" He heard the other bartender, Castor, say in a slightly lower voice than his brother.

Will, who Nico assumed to be the surfer, ignored him and grabbed Nico by the shoulders, causing him to almost fall off the bench. He lurched, and felt a hand steady him around the waist.

Turning around, he dropped his Sprite to the ground, causing the umbrella to swear angrily at him and stride off. He felt the same feeling as with many of the others, but this time, it cut at his heartstrings. The blond stared fiercely at him, and Nico noticed something- a small sun-shaped necklace hanging around his neck, the first piece of jewelry he had seen in Elysium. Nico's fingers slipped softly beneath the hem of his shirt.

Will looked at him, eyes open with concern. "We need to talk."

 **AN: Here's chapter one. Although I've been a huge fan of the series for years, this is my first time actually writing anything about it, and so I hope that this story is pretty cool so far :) Also, although I have a few major plot points decided on already, I would love to hear any suggestions, feedback, criticisms, etc.**


	3. Chapter 2

Will was silent, looking down at his lap. Nico watched as he bit his lip gently, a vaguely familiar motion.

They sat in the pavilion of the bar, overlooking the beach. According to a guidebook he had found earlier, Elysium was a peninsula composed of two overlapping circles, connected to the Fields by a single golden bridge. The body of water surrounding them swirled in light cycles, lapping at the sand. Known simply as the Pool, it was formed from the constant intake of water from the Acheron and Lethe, pouring out over a waterfall into Tartarus.

He fidgeted nervously, almost afraid to break the silence. Apparently Will had known him before, and when Nico replied with a blank stare, he saw hurt form on the blonde's face, although Will quickly ducked his head. Unlike many of the others he saw in Elysium, Will was rather quiet and nervous, always seeming to finally say something, then catch the words in his throat and just stare.

It was just them, and the quiet beat of the waves.

"So, were we friends?" Nico blurted, then coiled back as Will's eyes shifted upwards. Was that the wrong thing to say?

After a pause, Will finally spoke, his lips carefully twisting around every syllable. "Friends. Yeah, sort of. If you really lost your memories, maybe it's for the best."

He felt hot tears burn in his eyes, and fought to keep them down. Why would no one tell him anything?

"Will, please. I may have forgotten things, but I'd like to get to know you all better." Will looked up, a small smile forming on his lips. Nico grinned.

"That's better." He reached out to rest his hand on Will's, but the blonde flinched.

"Wait-"

But before Nico could say a word, Will literally disappeared. Like, with a sudden blink of sunlight and the closing notes of Mario, Nico was left, sitting alone at a table for two.

He sighed and placed his elbows on the table, watching the two cocktail umbrellas flirt across the table. He shifted them a bit closer, and watched as the blue one winked at Nico, then leaned over and kissed the pink umbrella, which had turned bright red. At least somebody was happy.

As the sun slowly began to slide above the horizon, he yawned. Since waking up in Elysium yesterday, he hadn't slept a second. As Nico noticed, the sun wasn't actually the real one. Rather, he could distinctly make out a single mile-long wire, linked to somewhere past the horizon.

The world started shrinking, eventually closing into a slit that transformed into darkness, as Nico's head hit the table.

"Fuck." The sound of a crashing piece of metal, followed by a series of angry swears, woke him up. Cracking a blurry eye open, he looked up as the guy in the kitchen kept swearing, occasionally blending in a few strings of angry Russian Nico had picked up from Will's grandmother.

He lay on a bed, with white sheets and a matching pillow. The rest of the room followed suit; aside from a small photograph of a village blanketed in snow, it was the same damn, pristine white.

The door shuffled a bit, and it opened to reveal a silver-haired guy, who stared straight at Nico.

"Hey dude, finally awake? Pollux found you passed out on the balcony, and told me to bring you here. Aeneas, by the way."

The mornings had never been his favorite, and Nico mumbled his name.

Aeneas arched an eyebrow, and scoffed lightly before closing the door. "I'll leave you to it. Clean clothing in the wardrobe."

After the door closed, Nico lifted the sheets, where he was simply dressed in a pair of gray briefs. Damn, death treated him nicely. Apart from a thin coating of black hairs that dusted his legs, his body was slim, lean and hairless; he could even see the tracing of abs that bulged out against his stomach, which he definitely never had. And although it felt a little weird, a quick glimpse underneath his underwear confirmed his suspicions- Hell came with enhancements.

Walking over to the wardrobe, he opened it and looked inside. As he guessed, a lot of the clothing didn't fit him well, but he managed to pick out a pair of jeans which fit loosely around his hips, as well as a violet Polo-rip off with a grinning centaur on the chest.

As he stepped outside the room, he noticed Aeneas sitting at the table, with a fresh plate of foot. Behind him, what looked like a hastily-covered, overturned pan on the oven. Nico stifled a giggle and sat down.

"Thanks for the breakfast, Aeneas was it?" Aeneas nodded.

"No problem. So, why were you passed out on the porch of Elysium's biggest strip club?"

Nico felt himself blushing. Since when were there strip clubs after death? "I- I didn't know it was a strip club, I actually just randomly chose a bar."

Aeneas cocked a grin and leaned in. Nico noticed that on Aeneas' forehead, there were faint scars that seemed to spell out the letters "SPQR", as if someone had branded him there.

"I'm sure you'd fit right in." The man winked suggestively at Nico, who shrugged back.

They talked for a bit, and when Nico mentioned that Luke had introduced him here, Aeneas laughed, a tone rich and deep.

"Luke probably didn't really explain anything, just left you to explore, huh?" At Nico's half-puzzled, half-nodding expression, Aeneas grinned and went on.

"Well, boy, this is Elysium. I've been here a while; after Carthage, living just didn't seem that great, so I didn't get reborn. This place, well, it gets on your nerves a bit. You should be able to feel it, right?"  
Something about that statement didn't sound right. Nico looked up, eyes narrowed, at Aeneas. "How did you know I was a child of Hades?"

Aeneas laughed. "Calm down kid, if there was a conspiracy in Elysium, I wouldn't be part of it- I'm ancient, been around for longer than some of the Roman gods. As for how I knew you were a son of Hades? The shadows were literally melting from your body."

Nico felt his face burn. Of course there wouldn't be any stalkers, or elaborate conspiracies, in Paradise. "Sorry, just continue."

"It's no problem; a lot of us have trouble believing that Paradise exists when we first get here. Anyways, I'll leave it to some of the others to show you how things go around here. There's the Main Sector, or what you've been exploring this whole time. Around the outskirts of the island, there are a few natural sectors for the heroes who want to experience something a bit different; they're customized after the four seasons on Earth. I'd personally recommend you check out Spring; Persephone runs it personally, and the smoothies there are to live for."

Persephone. For once, a name Nico recognized. Images of his step-mom filtered into his head, along with some annoying jingles for Raisin Bran. He giggled a little bit, earning a strange look from Aeneas.

"Anyways, you're pretty lucky to make it to Elysium. Sure, we aren't the Isles, where they have blowout parties and literal pizza bushes, but Elysium's a nice place to spend eternity in, or at least until the next time the Doors of Death open." He made a face, muttering something about Titans underneath his breath, before continuing.

"We've basically got all the perks of life, without a lot of the constraints of healthcare and time. I know the place seems huge; the architect they hired to design the place, that lady was way too optimistic about the number of heroes. Even after all these millennia, we don't even have enough to fill a football stadium, of which we have four. Many of the more modern ones choose to get a job and pretend like they're alive; ancient guys like me, we just hang around and relax."

As Aeneas was talking, Nico noticed something strange about the silver-haired guy. Apart from that one jab about the strip club, Aeneas was hardly flirting, and yet everything out of his mouth sounded oddly seductive; if he had asked Nico for a tissue, he would easily offer up his clothing.

"And that's it."

Nico blinked. Outside, the sun/light had already come fully out of the horizon, and Nico smiled brightly at Aeneas.

"Thank you so much for helping me out," Nico said.

The guy grinned. "Good luck, kid."

His first week passed by, almost in the blink of an eye, although in eternity you could never really tell. Between long sunbathing sessions with Aeneas, parties with Luke, and his job as a waiter, his days were filled to the brim. At night, he'd frequent the Sun Palace, hoping that he'd see Will again. It wasn't like there weren't other hot guys in Elysium; Percy clamored every other day at how cute Nico looked, while there were models walking around practically everywhere. In fact, the only remotely ugly person he saw was Achilles, although that might just be his personal bias speaking.

And yet, he just felt something a bit weird with Will. The way the blonde had stared at him; it didn't only feel familiar, but right. The blonde never was at the Palace, though, at least not when Nico was there. He'd sit there for hours, chatting with Pollux, hoping for his ray of sunshine to peek into that dark club.

But Will never came, and Nico found himself spending more and more time by himself, alone in the darkness, cocooned in a shroud of shadows.

"Yo, I thought I'd find you here."

Nico looked up from his position on the bench, currently trying to digest Shakespeare's Macbeth. He had never really had a great interest in literature, but with eternity to spend, he decided to give it another shot.

"What art thou doing here?" The words left his lips, before he realized.

Percy looked over with a sly grin. "I see you've been reading Shakespeare. If you'd like, I can teach you some swordplay."

The way he said that last word, Nico blushed. "You didn't answer the question."

The hero shrugged and sat down on the bench. "Nothing much, just came by to check on you. What's up with you anyways? Elysium's got all these parties, and cool stuff to do, and yet the past three times we've asked you to come hang, you've declined them all."

Nico sighed. Although Percy was a bit pushy and testosterone-fueled at times, he felt the guy was one of the only genuinely nice people here. Everyone else seemed to view him as an outsider, and even his own sister, Hazel, awkwardly skirted the topic of his memories whenever he talked about it.

"Percy, can I ask you something?"

Percy cocked an eyebrow, then grinned. "Sure. In case you were wondering, I'm single, I live on 25 Poseidon, and I'm six-three tall, nine long."

Nico palmed his face. After so many suggestive comments by Percy, he had finally learned to hold his blush. "Bruh. But seriously, have you heard of a guy, Will? He's blond, blue innocent eyes, about your height, surfer?"

Percy pouted. "Babe, and I thought I was the one for you."

"It's not like that!" And just like that, his face was bright red once again.

"Oh, it's much more. But I'll let Will tell you, alright? He actually lives a few houses down from me," Percy said.

"Come on in, it's unlocked." Nico heard Will's voice ring from further inside the house.

He stepped inside, and looked around. The inside was elegant, with a lot of white and gold splashed around the furniture and walls. On a corner of the entrance hall hung a picture, of Will and some dark-haired guy. Was that him?

Nico turned his head as Will walked out into the entrance way, and immediately froze. The blonde had a towel around his waist, and nothing else on. His other hand was busy wiping his hair, luckily shielding Will's sight for a few seconds.

"Yeah, sorry about that. I just got up from a nap and was showering-" His voice cut off as he saw Nico, staring awkwardly at him.

Immediately, his tone sharpened. "How'd you get here?"

"Um- Percy told me. He also wanted me to tell you to follow your dreams and grow some- some balls."

Will snorted. "Percy. Well, so, why are you here?"

"I just wanted to talk to you," Nico said, unsure at the harsh tone the blonde had taken. This wasn't the same guy he remembered from the bar.

His breath caught in his throat, as Will leaned closer. And closer, until their foreheads were almost touching. Nico gulped.

"What. Did. I say about staying away? Do not come looking for me again, don't ask around about me, don't even get close. I don't want to see you again. And tell Percy to eat shit."

Nico's jaw dropped, as tears formed at the corners of his eyes. He didn't know why, but those words stung at his heart. The door opened behind him, and Nico stared pleadingly at Will, but the blonde refused to look at him. As the door closed, Nico caught a glimpse of Will's face- a look of terror- before the door slammed shut, leaving a single boy standing on the steps of Paradise.

 **AN: Hi! Here's chapter two. The first few chapters are just setting up the world, and then I can start rolling out the plot. If I broke/break some cardinal rule of the PJO fandom, I'm terribly sorry; I've never worked with characters that already have personalities and elaborate characterization, and I'm trying to stay mostly faithful to them.**


	4. Chapter 3

"Thanks," Nico said, as he stepped off the creaking boat.

Charon nodded, silent. The boat driver looked like a stylish zombie, all skull and bones with a form-fitting suit and a few sprays of cologne on top. Nico dug around in his pockets, fishing out a few casino coins he had smuggled from Elysium, and tossed them in Charon's top hat.

As he stepped onto the ground, cold and stiff, he breathed for a second, letting the damp air swamp his lungs. He was dead anyways, so what did he have to lose?

He reached for the door, but instead of pushing on the heavy metal, he slipped into a shadow, reappearing quietly on the other side. He turned around.

In front of him sat Hades, his father, face framed by shadows.

"Hello, Nico." Hades spoke first. "I figured you'd come to see me eventually. I guess I'll also have to check up on Charon; I thought he was more loyal to me."

Nico felt anger swell up in his throat, but he forced it down. Now wasn't the time. "Why did you remove my memories?" he hissed.

Besides Hades, a Fury stepped out, her eyes glowing dangerously, but his father waved her back.

"It was for your own good. As a son of mine, you already have substantial power in my domain; but with your lineage, it was best to keep you safe by taking-"

"What lineage?"

Hades glared at the boy, and the green torches around them flared up. "Be quiet and listen."

He glared some more until Nico shrank back, and continued.

"I heard all about the incident with Hazel, the summoning." Looking at the boy's wide eyes, Hades smiled gently. "It's okay, I should've known something like that would happen. Lately, the magical borders of Elysium have been weakening, and the occasional demon or Asphodel worker wanders in."

Nico frowned. "You didn't answer my question," he snapped, only to flinch back when Hades' eyes shot into slits.

However, the god merely sighed, and ran a hand through his slickly combed hair. "Perhaps- perhaps it's best if I let someone explain to you." He sounded nervous, eyes darting left and right. "Just hurry up, boy."

Nico opened his mouth to speak, but before he could, a woman appeared. She was dressed in a pure white gown, except the front, above her chest, had been blackened by char. She looked beautiful, with the look of a traditional actress, and her long black hair was tied up into a neat bun. Her eyes glistened with tears.

"Mom", Nico barely whispered, almost questioning.

And before he could react, the woman lunged forward and embraced him. As his fingers made contact with her bare arms, he gasped- her skin was freezing to the touch, as if she had just woken up from a refrigerating session.

"My dear son." Her voice slid gently into his ears, a sound he had last heard a century ago.

Nico grinned, blinking back tears. "Hi." However, she didn't seem to hear, and kept on talking.

"Your father called me here today for a very special meeting. We're going to teach you about your family." She beamed at him, pointing her hand at the space right behind him.

He looked questioningly at Hades, who motioned for him to keep listening.

"Last week, I heard from Bianca that your school was having a play, and they wanted you to dress up as an ancestor. Well, your father is out of the question," at this, she looked to her left and winked, "but I can teach you a bit about my history."

His eyes were wide as he watched. His mother seemed to be talking as if they were still alive, and if he was still the child she was able to hold in her lap.

"Mommy came from Italy, and her family came from Rome. Do you remember that story I used to tell you and Bianca, about the twins who found Rome?" Apparently hallucination-Nico nodded yes, because she beamed. "Well, they didn't actually create Rome. Instead, my grandfather's grandfather's grandfather, many times over; he was a heroic sailor who, pursuing love and peace for his people, could be counted the real Father of Rome. Do you know who that is, my pearl?"

Maria Di Angelo slowly turned pale, and Nico could see Hades from behind her. Their lips in unison, his gentle growl blending with her softer lilt.

"Aeneas."

As he neared the house, about two blocks away from the Sun Palace, he heard shouting from outside the window.

"He doesn't need to know. The boy's still new to Elysium; he earned it just as much as you and me." The voice, pleading softly, sounded oddly familiar, though Nico couldn't quite place it.

Another man- this one Nico recognized as Aeneas' heavily accented English. "You were once strong, during the war. Look at you now. I don't like using him either, but we need him. Also, maybe he can save Will-"

Nico didn't notice it, but he snapped, and found himself morphing out of the ground in the middle of Aeneas' kitchen, surrounded by a halo of blazing purple fire.

"This 'boy'," he put a particular snarl onto the word, as Aeneas turned pale, "wants to know what is going on."

He turned around, and almost fell over. Achilles stood before him, squared chin jutted forward, glaring down. That voice he heard, defending him- it was Achilles?

"Uh- and you too!" His voice squeaked up an octave, causing Achilles to raise a brow at him.

However, Aeneas didn't speak, just beckoned towards the hallway. Nico watched as his eyes looked past his shoulder, at Achilles. A few seconds passed, before the leaner warrior stood and walked down the hall, pushing open a door.

Nico followed, quite drained from the display he had put on. Behind him, Achilles followed.

"Um, whatever it was, thanks for looking out for me I guess."

The warrior only grunted, and prodded him forward.

As they reached the door, Aeneas stepped to the side, and Nico looked in. The room itself was relatively sunny, with light pouring in from the skylight and windows on the side. However, it was the bed in the corner, and specifically the occupant, that he noticed immediately.

"Will?"

The blond boy lay, eyes closed, underneath the sheets, his head rested on a pillow. Beside him, on the tabletop, a sleek laptop sat, with a logo depicting a pomegranate missing a bite.

"He won't wake," Aeneas put his hand on Nico's shoulder, which he instinctively recoiled away from. "That's the thing- your precious boyfriend is also the only damn person who can heal us."

Nico leapt back, eyes wild. "Wa-wait, boyfriend? Heal us from what?"

Aeneas opened his mouth as if to respond, but instead gulped. Instead, Achilles spoke.

"What pretty boy here means is that Will, your boy-friend." As he said boyfriend, the warrior slowed down each syllable mockingly, "has healing powers from his pops. I assume Hades told you about the problem, and also about Aeneas?"

Nico nodded, glaring at Aeneas, who was currently peeking out from behind Achilles.

"Well, the problem isn't just that others are getting in, it's that we're falling out. Take a look at this." Achilles moved over and opened the laptop, clicking on the video.

It was Hazel, running with a hunky Asian guy. They smiled at each other as they ran laps around the Winter track, recognizable by the snowflakes spilling down from the sky.

And then, out of nowhere, something shot out from the snow-lidded trees, and the guy cried out in pain. Nico watched as Hazel screamed, running across the track to the guy, and the camera panned over to the Asian.

He felt sick to his stomach. While the top half of the guy was human, the bottom half of him looked like a mangled set of tiger legs, as if he had been in the middle of transforming. All around him, a swarm of gray corpses clung onto him, tugging him down into the ground. Hazel shrieked and shot a few blasts of mist from her fingers, but it was too late, and a few more seconds later, Hazel was left screaming on the track.

"Frank wasn't the first. We've lost four heroes since the beginning of this year. And it's more than that. Can't you feel it in the air? The death down here, it's slowly twisting us."

He was right. Even though he had only been down here a few days, Nico already found himself more violent and possessive than he had ever been. His eyes caught onto Will, still busy cuddling a pillow.

"So, um, why is Will sleeping?"

Aeneas glanced nervously at Achilles, who stared stone-faced at the boy. "Well, he's one of Apollo's most powerful children. We tried forcing him to prophesize a question – uh, asked him to", he corrected quickly, but Nico's slits dilated.

Lunging, he grabbed for Will's arm, and focused his mind, banishing all the light from the room, and forming it into a circular fortress around him and Will.

Will thrashed, and Nico put an arm around him, holding him closer in the swirling mass of shadows. He felt Will's pulse beat against him, and he searched his brain, scrambling for a way to get out. Shadow-travel, right. He had used that quite a few times in his youth.

Unlike his darkness-slip trick, where he chose a shadow and ported through it, shadow travel was different. It wasn't teleportation; rather, he had to almost kill himself and whoever was with him, reducing them down to the very base essence of life- the shadow. Once in that stage, they could move faster than the speed of light; after all, a ray of light can never catch a shadow.

He channeled, feeling their life auras crumble down. _Three, two, one.._

And then a girl stepped through the shadow, pointed her finger at him, and he instantly crumbled down to the ground, unable to move.

"Hazel?"

Her voice was quiet. "Sorry, Nico."

They sat again in Aeneas's living room, except this time, Nico sat there stiffly bound by long chains of shadow, Will lay snoring on his lap, and Hazel sat on the couch opposite him. The bitch didn't even have the courage to look at him, just to tighten the chains periodically. Good, at least she didn't feel comfortable.

Aeneas frowned. "Were you even listening?"

Nico spat at the gray-haired man, his eyes narrowed to slits.

"Again, we don't want to do this, but trust me, it's necessary. Don't blame your father, he didn't know about any of this, but he was right- your lineage."

The man shuffled in his seat, and Nico couldn't help but remember waking up in Aeneas's house. Had he been planning this since then?

"In history, only two demigods have combined lineage from Hades and Aphrodite, and one of them is sitting in front of me. The other one, well he had a few generations removed on either side from the gods, and well, he turned out to be the worst dictator the world has known."

He looked at Nico, as if gauging his reaction. Wow, he thought, an exclusive club shared by only him and Hitler. How lucky.

"But you, you can tap into the emotional powers of love and adoration, as well as complete mastery over death. And our blonde friend here is perfect- he apparently still has feelings for you, and we know he's got that prophecy in him somewhere."

Nico stared blankly at the man. When he had first gotten here, he remembered how nice everyone seemed; now, he realized something. Inside every eye he saw here, there was always a hint of ruthlessness, as if death had stolen humanity away from them.

"You're asking me to steal from Will's mind," he said.

Aeneas winced. "Not steal, no no. A better word would be, perhaps, coax."

He moved his hand over Will's, feeling how delicate and helpless he seemed. Monsters, all of them. He glared at all three of the heroes; Hazel, with her head bowed down, Achilles with his eyes frantic, Aeneas – frantic.

And all hell blew up.

Achilles jumped up, knocking Aeneas to the floor. He reached for Hazel, but a tendril of shadow wrapped around his fist, squeezing it tightly.

"Go. Run. We'll find you later."

We? Nico felt the bonds around him loosen, and he prepared the shadow travel process again.

Just one minute left. Achilles stood up, one hand fighting back Aeneas, the other one clenched against Hazel. In the light, he truly looked like a hero from the ancient art in museums; muscles rippling underneath his shirt, an almost reddish aura surrounding him.

Ten seconds. He gripped Will's hand tightly. Just ten more.

And through the door, as if they had all the time in the world, walked Perseus and Luke. Nico prayed they wouldn't notice him.

Of course, the gods never listened to him. Percy saw him immediately, beckoned to Luke, and flung a golden pen at Nico. Midair, it turned into a sword. Time seemed to slow down for Nico; he wondered if he could still die, or if it would just hurt a lot.

And the sword landed, a centimeter in front of his face. Nico frowned, or at least tried to, but his mouth wouldn't move. In fact, everything in the room seemed suspended in the air.

Except for one blonde. Luke walked through the room casually, knocking aside vases and such. He walked up to Achilles, the warrior still surrounded by a faint red aura, and knocked him to the ground, where he lay still.

"You know, you can't die in the Underworld. But honestly why kill, when I can suspend time itself? Right, you can't answer." He laughed at his own joke, a manic giggling. Around him, Hazel, Aeneas and Percy unfroze, the final one grumbling.

"Luke, I told you to not freeze me. You ruined my dramatic entrance!" The hero half-pouted.

Together, they walked over to the immobile Nico, Aeneas delivering a sharp kick to Achilles on the way.

"Now, won't you cooperate?"

The number hung in his mind. One second. One second was all he needed to escape, to drag them out of this mess. He tried screaming for his father in his mind, praying that today was the day Hades decided to take a tour of Elysium.

As if reading his mind, Aeneas smirked. "Daddy's not going to be here to save you. He's off aboveground, visiting Persephone for a favor at the request of Hazel."

He moved Nico's fingers off of Will's wrist, and Nico instantly felt the shadow connection sever. He glared as hard as he could at Aeneas, which was pretty hard without moving a muscle.

Hazel pointed at Will's feet, and a large hole opened up, while she suspended him with a claw. "Go in, or Will's going to be taking a long trip to Tartarus".

Nico felt himself unfreeze, and immediately jerked up, feeling a sharp pain jolt through his back. He held up his hands, glaring at the demigods.

"Okay I'll do it. Put him down."

"You can touch him from there."

He frowned. This wasn't going to be easy, was it? Resigned, Nico put his palm on Will.

Going in, well it was hard to describe. He felt his mind gently probe out, almost poking out at Will's, a soft bubble. He felt his way around, and found a hard membrane blocking his path of entry. Undeterred, he pushed slightly harder, and the membrane flexed in, stressing, stressing, pop.

He slid inside fully, feeling the warmth flood into his mind.

And the world turned once, and sunshine spilled everywhere.


	5. Chapter 4

The voice of Aeneas, heavily accented, blared inside his brain.

"Good job, Nico, you're in. Your presence is powerful enough to coax him. All you have to do is witness the events that are the most important to Will. We won't be able to see what you're doing, but Hazel's spell is strong enough that he won't wake up until you get the prophecy out."

The voice rung out from somewhere beyond, and he opened his eyes. He seemed to be inside some sort of a room, with all the lights dimmed. All around him, he saw spheres: translucent, inside each a different clip, of the same boy, played on an endless loop. It was amazing.

He moved a foot, and gasped as he felt nothing below his feet. Looking down, he realized that the floor was solid, but his body was shimmering, almost translucent. Hesitating, he took another step. To him, it sort of felt like walking on the surface of water; the ground felt unsteady, and shivered underneath his feet.

He reached over to the bubble that had caught his eye, one near the center of the room. In it, he saw Will talking with a younger man – himself – on a grassy field. He moved his ghostly finger closer, then hesitated.

Did he really have to do this? His eyes narrowed, and he remembered his anger. Then, out of the corner of his eye, he caught a bubble showing Will, hanging above a gaping hole, suspended by a shadowy tendril. His body lay limp.

Yeah.

"What is wrong with you? Are you just going to stand there, silently, and _smile_ at me?"  
The world shifted, and in front of him, a young, dark-haired man paced back and forth on the grass, ranting loudly. Himself. Nico saw the younger him glare at Will, who looked exactly as he did in Elysium.

Finally, after what must've been twenty laps, Will stopped grinning stupidly and spoke.

"Aww, that's no way to speak to your 'ray of sunlight'." He smirked.

Ray of sunlight. That pulled at a memory, and for the first time, Nico was actually able to recall the rest. Maybe it was being in Will's mind, or something, but he remembered.

There was this journal, marbled black, that Nico used to have. Since he hadn't really been friends with anyone, and anyways he was sure no one would be stupid enough to go looking through _his_ journal, he had kept the book relatively unsecured.

And then, during his infirmary visit, Percy had been sent to clean up his stuff and move him into the cabin. The cocky bastard was probably grinning as he handed it to Will when Nico was sleeping.

Young Nico blushed furiously, and swatted the air. "Stop, that wasn't for your eyes."

Will smiled, and Nico felt as if butterflies burst into life, tugging at his heart.

"It's okay. My eyes have moved onto something far more .. interesting."

Will moved in closer, and both Nico's froze.

He jumped when he felt a hand clamp down on his back, and he jumped back in shock. Standing in front of him, before the frozen scene, was Will, solid and looking worse for the wear. His eyes glinted dangerously.

"Nico. I warned you to stay away." His voice, cold, dug daggers into Nico's heart.

He moved a hand out to Will, but the blond jerked back, and before he could say a word, Will had blinked off. Nico blinked back tears, but he couldn't make out where Will was.

A sudden image of Will, drooling and limp, hanging over a hole rung in his mind. Right, that's where.

He stumbled over himself, mumbling and sniffling his nose, and moved to the next bubble. It seemed a few months after the previous bubble, where Will had kissed him for the first time. Nico's hair looked slightly longer in the clip, and they both looked unhappy.

Nico took a deep breath, and placed his palm on the bubble's surface.

He stood in the middle of a grassy pavilion. Beside him, the body of a girl lay in the grass, her characteristic blue eyes dull, face framed against blond hair.

"Please." Will was sobbing, tears spilling down his cheeks. "Ka-Kayla – you can bring her back. Nico, I know you can."

Young Nico stared down at the girl with a mixture of sympathy and sadness, but he shook his head, staying silent.

Will was screaming now, and Nico flinched as the blond leapt forward and smacked his boyfriend. "I thought you loved me."

Nico could feel his heart crumble, an echo of the past. In front of him, his younger self stared back at Will with emotionless eyes. "Will-"

The blond shrieked, his calm demeanor crumbling. "You liar. You sick, fucking liar. She was just a girl, she was just a kid, she was my goddamn sister. And you, I – I hate you." Will's eyes immediately opened wide as Young Nico flinched. "Wait, Nico," he called out weakly, but he had sunken into the ground, curled up in a tight ball.

The scene froze, and Nico sat down, leaned back on his arms, and stared at it- the pained expression in Will's eyes. He remembered that day all too well. A pair of drunken dracenae had wandered into camp during the early morning, when Kayla was taking a walk. She managed to slay them both, but the poison had gotten into her thigh, and Will couldn't heal her in time.

That was also the first morning Nico had woken up, warm and snuggled close to Will's body. Then, they heard the scream.

He heard a small shuffle behind him, and this time when he turned around, he wasn't at all surprised to see Will.

The blond shuffled, and Nico noticed that they were in the same position as before- Nico on the ground, Will standing tall, staring pleadingly at him.

"I'm sorry for what I said earlier. I know why you're here."

Nico stared, blankly, the angry pounding slowly fading.

Will continued, taking a deep breath. "We haven't been completely honest with you. To get you into my head, to get your powers as such, we had to make sure that you believed I was truly in danger."

Anger exploded again. "You were all lying to me? You?"

"I'm, I'm sorry." Will said.

The expression in his eyes mirrored Young Nico's perfectly, and Nico couldn't help but lose his breath. Will looked so- helpless.

"I guess its okay. So why did you all go through so much trouble to get me here?" Nico asked.

"Because, although Aeneas was cruel," At his name, Nico flinched visibly, and Will frowned with sympathy. "He was correct. Your presence, well, it's strong enough to clean through my memories. But you're looking in the wrong place."

He held out his hand, and Nico hesitantly took it. Instantly, he felt his body begin to solidify, and a strange heat pulse through his body. He blushed violently, and for what seemed like the first time in forever, Will grinned at him.

They walked through the room, Nico holding his breath the entire time so he could hear everything. The beat of Will's heart, the soft breaths he made, the light footsteps.

Will led him over to a far corner of the room, in which three bubbles sat. Will smiled as he guided Nico's finger over to one, and they pressed it together, his shaking hand guided by Will's firm one.

Nico gasped audibly. They stood on what seemed to be a beach, but all around them, a tunnel of water rose towards the heavens. Occasionally, streamers of colored lightning crashed down from all the sides, and Nico looked up to find a grinning Jason and Percy.

And in front of him, a slightly older Will, in his early 20's, knelt down and pulled out a black box, opening it. Inside sat a small pendant, a sun with a shadow pointing on it. Nico felt his hand move instinctively over his chest, and feel the bare skin there.

"Will you marry me?" He saw Will's lips move, and Nico grinned broadly. He looked next to him at the real Will, who smiled fondly at his younger self.

They watched, together, as the water crashed down, and Jason and Percy descended from the sky. The two heroes walked over, placing an arm on either side of Will's slumped shoulders.

"Hey man, that was great!" Nico cringed slightly at Percy's voice; although it was all apparently a ruse, he still didn't trust the guy.

Jason grinned, then his lips tilted down. He glared at Percy to stop smiling.

"Hey man, what's wrong?"

Young Will looked up, eyes wary. "I don't know. We've been dating for years, yeah, but I don't know. What if he says no? What if Nico doesn't really love me as much as I do him?" Every word dug into Nico's chest, and he caught Will staring at him from the corner of his eye. He hastily looked away.

Percy squatted down in front of the blonde, tilting his chin up. "Hey man, there is no way in Tartarus that Nico will say no. Do you remember when you first asked him out?"

Young Will nodded, lips tilted up in a faint smile.

"He stayed in my cabin the night after your date, keeping me up until the morning. He was all, 'Oh Will's so hot, he held open the door for me'." Percy spoke in a weirdly high-pitched Italian accent, causing both Wills to giggle.

"He thinks you are literally a god. Like, you are so lucky you haven't heard Nico's love poems." Jason made a gagging noise, while Young Will blushed furiously.

The blonde smiled, and Nico smiled in relief.

The clip stopped there, and Nico's breath hitched as he turned to find Will staring straight at him. The blonde had a curious expression on his face, his eyes perked up and lips tilted in a smile.

"Do you still remember that night?" His voice was barely a whisper. "Close your eyes."

And Nico did, letting the darkness envelope his mind. Will had wanted to show him something down by the beach, apparently some cute hippo thing that Percy had found. He had tagged along reluctantly, grumbling the entire way.

He had almost fallen down in shock when the little cute green hippo, waddling in a tiny pool, suddenly morphed into Frank wearing a suit and tie. Then came the wall of water and lightning striking down on all sides. Then, apparently the girls had teamed up to make a magical, mechanical pegasus which broke through the walls of water, with Will on its back. And as if that wasn't enough, Hazel made a shower of jewels rain from the sky.

Nico smiled, as he remembered how he had almost had a heart attack with the sudden burst of energy. And yet, he had actually fallen over embarrassingly when Will leapt off the pegasus, knelt and produced the little black box.

He heard Will whisper in his ear, and he instinctively leaned back, feeling his head rest into the crook of Will's neck. "Remember what I said?"

The memory came back, clear as a ray of sunshine on a rainy day. Nico felt his lips shudder.

"Till death do us apart."

"Well, it seemed like I lied."

Nico smiled, and opened his eyes, to look into Will's eyes, an inch above his own. They really were beautiful, as if they were carved out of morning dew.

"I love you, Will."

And with that, the world turned blindingly bright.

 **A/N: Mmm that felt satisfying. I really hated making a lot of the characters seem like such douchebags, and now the actual storyline can begin. Next chapter- the prophecy, and quest!**


	6. Chapter 5

After threatening to murder anyone if they tried a stunt like that again, everyone gathered inside Aeneas's living room. Will stood in front of them, his eyes glowing green. To be honest, it sort of freaked Nico out when smoke poured out of his lips.

"One from Heaven, two of Hell

Envenom and soothe the wrath of the King.

Astray, Midway, in journey one fell.

Then, through Passion's kiss and sting,

The bells of Death once more shall ring."

Will blinked once, and the light vanished from his eyes. He leaned forward and almost toppled over, and Nico lunged, catching the blond in his arms.

Will giggled, and reached a hand up, petting Nico's face. He froze.

"Aww, you're so warm." He traced a finger along Nico's chin.

Percy laughed. "Yeah, that green stuff is basically coke. Back in the day, Will used to end up basically high for a few hours after delivering a prophecy."

Nico looked down at the giggling boy, writhing in his arms, and felt heat flush across his cheeks. Beside him, Luke pulled out a phone and typed a few things in.

"I'm calling Annabeth. I don't know what changed, but Will's living prophecies were basically in standard prose. This shit is Shakespeare."

Within a few minutes, there was a knocking on the door, and Annabeth walked in. She scanned her eyes, noting Nico blushing uncomfortably while holding a giggling Will; Percy and Aeneas talking down a flustered Achilles, who had somehow missed the message that this was all a ruse; Hazel sitting on the couch, and Luke staring straight ahead with cold eyes.

She sat down. "Okay, let me see the prophecy."

Luke reached over and handed her a piece of paper, on which someone had written the prophecy.

Annabeth raised an eyebrow. "Did you, perhaps, let Percy write this?"

At the mention of his name, the brown-haired hero turned and grinned. "Aww, is my handwriting that amazing?"

Annabeth deadpanned, and flipped the paper over. On it, at various places, an array of doodles that Percy somehow managed to make while transcribing were scribbled. Above the word "kiss"- a small heart with the letters "W + N" in it.

He didn't need to be a longtime resident to recognize what those letters meant, and Nico felt his heartbeat quicken.

"People, people, focus." It was Hazel who spoke, sitting quietly on the couch, and Nico felt a twinge of anger at her. He knew it wasn't her fault; they needed to bait him in, and yet he still felt hurt. She was his sister.

Annabeth peered at the page, quickly taking in the words despite Percy's rough handwriting. "One from Heaven, two of Hell? Are we in Heaven or in Hell?"

"A difficult question, though Nico's clearly in heaven right now," Luke said, beckoning to the bright-red boy. Nico let go of Will quickly, letting him fall onto the sofa, although his heart screamed at him for doing so.

Will pouted. "Babe, why did you let go of me?"

Nico turned around, as he knew he couldn't resist that pout for long, and turned towards the page. "What if Hell is Hades?" He pointed at himself and Hazel. "Maybe it could be referring to us two."

"But if that's true, what would Heaven represent?" Annabeth said, following his train of thought.

Percy grinned. "That's easy. Nico and Hazel are both dark and mysterious; Heaven will probably be someone who is brighter and happier, maybe, sunnier." He wagged his eyebrows on the last word and winked at Nico.

"That's stupid."

"Nico, my stupid ex might actually have a point." Percy grinned, then frowned.

"Wait, stupid?"

Everyone ignored him, as Annabeth spoke. "Will's an obvious one, with his healing and stuff." The blond perked up at his name, somehow snapping out of his giggling. "I guess that's probably it."

Nico looked around the room, hoping that someone would pose an objection. Anyone at all, because he really didn't want to go on a quest with a semi-boyfriend and his semi-traitorous sister.

No one spoke. Achilles grunted, Aeneas just looked disgruntled, and Percy stared at Annabeth with large pleading eyes.

"Can't I go on the quest?"

….

The time passed fairly fast afterwards. Although all Nico really wanted to do was to find a corner, curl up and fall asleep, but apparently, a questing hero had to listen to the details.

Annabeth, easily the smartest of the group, figured out everything else pretty quickly.

"The King, I'm guessing Minos, has been unleashing this wrath on the Underworld. It would be him; he's had a grudge against Hades for years."

Everyone nodded, even Percy, who had been staring at Annabeth fearfully as she thought.

"And then, midway, one falls, which doesn't sound so good. But…"

Nico finished her sentence, his brain clearing up at the puzzle. "It's that old logic puzzle. We can't tell what midway is until we finish, which means that line is essentially useless."

Annabeth nodded, a newfound respect appearing in her eyes. "That's what I was thinking, but still…" Her eyes glazed over a second, then refocused. "Whatever."

Nico looked cautiously at her, who nodded her head. The whole room seemed to cling onto their words, he could barely hear a single sound other than breathing.

"Passion's kiss and sting; Passion's sorta like love, right? It could be Eros, I've met him before and it's not pretty." Nico said.

"As for the bells of Death ringing, that's easy- we get Death to function properly again, and Elysium and everything else is restored back to normal."

Annabeth looked at him, and nodded. "That sounds about right, though I'm still not sure if that's it. It feels too simple for a prophecy, especially those last few lines."

He felt himself grinning, for the first time in hours, and fist-bumped her from across the table. Then, a loud clattering noise made them turn around.

Percy lay, snoring, on the ground, with his sword a few feet away. In fact, the whole room was asleep, Will curled up at Nico's feet.

…

They met to leave the next morning. Minos worked at the gates to Hell, and so they planned to confront him there. Nico met them at the gates to Elysium, near the beach where Luke first found. From where he stood, the lagoon looked as pristine as when he got here. It seemed like ages ago, when he first watched the sun rise and fall, first met Will again.

Speaking of Will, the blonde jogged towards him casually. He felt his heart flutter as he saw the massive knapsack, and smile, he carried.

"Hey, babe." He leaned in for a kiss, and Nico frowned. They weren't really still dating, were they?

Will noticed his frown, and tried to match it to no success; his mouth just didn't seem suited to sadness. Finally, after an awkward few seconds, he gave up and ran his fingers through his hair.

"What's wrong? I thought we all settled everything. Anyways, I got you a gift."

He held out a handmade scarf to Nico. It was black, with stripes of golden yarn.

Nico raised his hands. "Sorry, I don't wear scarves," he blurted out, before realizing what he had said.

But the damage was already done. Will's smile instantly died, and his head looked down at the sand. "I should've known. After all, I was married to you." He raised his head a little bit, a hint of a smile forming. "You remember?"

Nico shook his head, then looked up at Will's pale blue eyes, and was stunned to see a thin layer of moisture forming. "I- I'm sorry, but I think I need a bit more time. The memories still feel like they aren't there." A lie. He remembered everything.

Will smiled softly, and patted Nico on the head. "I understand, bud. It's just that- it's been so long since I've seen you. I really missed you, you know."

Nico opened his mouth to respond, but was cut off with the sound of people laughing. Frowning over his shoulder, he saw Hazel and Luke laughing about something as they walked across the beach. Damn morning people.

Luke grinned as he saw Nico, and waved his hand in the air. "Hey, dude, you ready?"

"Yeah, sorta."

Luke reached behind him, into a blue knapsack, and pulled out a watch.

"Here, this is for you," Luke said, holding it out to Nico.

Nico held up his necklace from inside of his shirt. "Um, thanks man, but this can already tell the time-"

Luke laughed. "Bud, this isn't for telling the time. If you shatter it, it'll stop time for a few minutes, for everyone around you at least. A perk I have from my time as Kronos."

Nico gingerly held the watch. It had a golden clasp, and the links felt too cold on his wrist. "Thanks." He smiled tightly.

He turned around, and found Will staring blankly at him, expressionless. Nico could see the pain etched into his face, but the blonde quickly turned around.

"Will-"

Will shrugged him off. "Let's get going."

 **A/N: I know I'm not very good at this, but it would really mean the world to me if I could get some more reviews. It's just a bit hard knowing that I'm doing something wrong, but not having any clue what it is :/ Anyways, here's the chapter. Thanks for reading!**


	7. Chapter 6

By the time they had arrived at the Gates of Hell, Nico had tried everything to get Will back. Everything, that is, except talking to him. Instead, the two resolutely kept their conversations solely with Hazel, refusing to even acknowledge the other's existence.

"Minos is there?"

Nico pointed to a large mass of swirling dead people, all wandering in front of the gates. They seemed a cesspool of misery; he heard wailing, cries of anguish, and the occasional pleading with the judges.

Hazel nodded. "Let's go."

She teleported a few of the drugged doggy biscuits they had brought, and they watched as Cerberus sniffed suspiciously at them. Finally, he apparently decided they smelled normal enough, because he picked one up and ate it. Good. That would keep him unable to recognize them as Elysium folk.

Finding Minos wasn't the hard part. The ghost king looked exactly as Nico remembered him; with manic eyes, a fading beard, and a frail frame.

He walked up to the king, pushing aside a pair of ghosts, and grabbed his shoulder. Minos looked up in surprise.

"Oh, my. Nico Di Angelo, it's been a long time, hasn't it?"

"Cut it. What do we have to do to get rid of the poison?"

Minos' face shuffled through a variety of expressions in a few moments, before finally landing on a smirking, know-it-all look.

Hazel spoke nervously. "Um, Nico, maybe this is a bit too rash.."

Minos laughed. "You think I have something to do about the poison? The Underworld's curse is caused by me?"

Nico felt his face flush. "Obviously. The prophecy said a King, and we all know you have reason to hate the Underworld, and especially heroes."

"A prophecy, you say? Why don't you ask your prophet if I'm the King?" He beckoned to Will, who was staring uncomfortably at his feet.

"Will?'

The blonde mumbled, "Maybe not, Nico. I don't know."

He looked back up, glaring at Minos, who was wearing a grin that stretched wide. If he wasn't translucent, he would've punched the guy.

Beside them, Cerberus began howling, the drug probably wearing off. Hazel shot Nico a worried look, and held up the bag of biscuits, revealing that there was only one left. She tossed it, and the dog snapped it up with one head, while the other two sniffed the air.

Nico looked at Will, who was now blatantly refusing to meet his eyes. Ever since their fight back on the beach, Will had been acting awfully strange.

He flinched when he heard, no, felt, Minos' ghastly breath inches from his skin.

"Because my heart has been warmed from the visit of such charming demigods, though, I'll give you a hint."

Nico narrowed his eyes at the king. "Why would you help us?"

Minos sighed. "Young man, just because I hate you and your father doesn't mean I hate you more than I care about myself. Don't think so highly of yourself. If Elysium fails, then the lanes of the dead will be overcrowded, and I'll never get a proper coffee break anymore."

This time it was Will who spoke, although to Nico, his voice sounded a little strange. "Minos, what were you going to say about a hint?"

Minos smiled and patted Will on the back, not caring or unnoticing when his hand went straight through. "Child of Apollo, I think your light is bright enough to reveal the truth, isn't it?" Will's face instantly turned blank, no trace of emotion.

Minos chuckled. "And yet I will still give you a hint. Who knows, it might make your journey more interesting. I cannot reveal the quest; that would be against the Ancient Laws. However, this much is clear- the cure you seek will only be revealed in the Pit.

Nico's mind lurched at those words. The Pit. Tartarus.

 _Burn. That's all he felt. Around him, the pustules of fire burst up, scalding his skin, as if from a sadistic, real-life Mario game._

 _He gritted his teeth and stretched his arm just a bit farther, feeling his arms burn. He had coated them with the waters of the Cocytus, cold enough to keep his skin intact, but he could still feel every inch of the pain. Below him, in the skin of Tartarus, a small ball pulsed._

 _Just. A. Few. More. Inches. He felt his fingers grasp the smooth surface, and he gave it a yank._

 _He fell backwards, clutching the sphere in his hands, and grinned, despite the painful sores that were forming on his arms. In his hands was a fully formed Hydra egg, enough to be ground into gallons of powder. Will always complained about not having enough to treat his patients; the only bits Will could get were from the scraps lying in Hydra nests, and Nico was afraid Will would get hurt._

Tartarus. He had grown up to that symphony of evil, listening to that soft, muttering, voice of evil always over his shoulder. It was like a knife, slowly carving away every layer of skin until it exposed his deepest thoughts. Percy and Annabeth, two of the strongest heroes he knew, barely survived a few days down there.

He couldn't go back there.

He felt a hand rest on his back, and looked up to see Will grimacing at him.

"Maybe, I could just go with Hazel, if it hurts you so much. After all, the prophecy does say that one falls midway."

Will's eyes were a tender blue, caressing, almost like the sky surrounding a cloud. Nico sighed.

"I can't let you go alone. I'm coming." He moved his hand, grasping onto Will's slender one. Nico looked up, and Will blushed lightly at him.

"You don't have to."

"But I want to."

His breath hitched as he saw Will's lips curl into a tiny smile. Gods, he was so beautiful.

And before he could stop himself, he found their lips clashed together. He tasted like the dew after a rainstorm, fresh and light, with a hint of sweetness.

"Please, let's get going," Hazel grumbled from behind them, and Nico drew back with a smirk.

"We all good, baby?"

Will offered him a weak smile.

* * *

The entrance to Tartarus, proper, was a long winding corridor of stone clinging onto the walls of the Pit, slowly inching downwards. Besides them, the screams of various damned souls sounded; as they walked lower, the path narrowed, and the torturous screams grew. At one point, Nico could make out the bodies, charred, carried along in the fire.

Beside him, Will shivered, and Nico felt his hand clench on his own.

"Can't heal them. I've never felt pain so strong."

He was deathly pale. As a contrast, Nico had felt his skin darkening as they went deeper and deeper into Tartarus; it was as if the pain was bleeding onto his skin, coloring it. Hazel seemed the same.

"So, what do you think we'll find down there?" Hazel asked, walking in front of the group on the narrow pathway.

Nico shrugged. "The last time I went down, there were just a bunch of monsters chilling."

They walked a bit more, in silence, before finally hitting the bottom. They stood in what seemed a large rotunda, with the floor a reddish clay. The light from the Underworld had long since vanished, replaced with a crimson shade of red that cast a glow upon all of them.

A voice rang out from the darkness, and although it had no tone, it was the purest melody Nico had ever heard.

"Welcome to Tartarus."

Out of the shadows walked what seemed a particularly handsome zombie. He had chunks of flesh missing from his body, and other parts, not completely disemboweled, hung.

Nico raised his hand, and a ball of shadows appeared, but Hazel stepped in front of him.

"Don't worry, Nico."

She looked straight at the man. "Spirit of Orpheus, will you grant us your song?"

The man nodded, a solemn expression on his face. "If you so desire, I shall sing, daughter of Pluto."

He opened his mouth.

What came out, Nico didn't remember. All he knew was that, well, it sounded damn good. He could've been singing a commercial jingle, he didn't know or particularly care, but it poured over him and washed him away. He felt his eyelids fall.

* * *

When he next opened his eyes, Nico found himself lying in what felt like water, although the intense darkness made it difficult to tell.

"Hazel? Will?"

Silence.

He stood up, feeling the water drip down his clothing. Looking around, he was in a cave of some sorts. Ahead of him, the faint glow of light shone from a source, but he couldn't really tell what it was. He stumbled forward on the rocks.

The light ahead grew closer, and closer. He turned the corner.

And instantly shielded his eyes. He seemed to be in a massive cavern, atop a cliff. All around him, streams of lava poured down into a boiling lake below, where they gurgled and sank beneath the black water.

The hill he stood on was covered in dead weeds. Ahead of him stood a tiny graveyard, a small cluster of tombstones.

He walked forward. The gravestones looked like they hadn't been cleaned in centuries, with dust etched onto the carvings.

"Wait, Nico!"

He turned around at Will's voice. The blonde limped towards him, his face in pain.

Nico gasped. Will was translucent; parts of his skin were peeling away, and Nico could see the stalagmites through his chest.

"Will!"

Thoughts of the graveyard were lost as Nico rushed forward to catch his boyfriend. He touched Will's forehead; it was ice cold. Will flinched as Nico touched him, as if his fingers were boiling daggers.

Will looked up, and his normally light blue eyes were a dark shade, nearing black. "Nico, I- I figured it out. Don't listen to her, please."

A girl's voice spoke. "Nico, the prophecy. We only have a few minutes."

Hazel. She moved silently behind Will, and it wasn't for a second until Nico realized her feet had all but disappeared. Her face, too, was etched in pain, but at least she seemed to be intact.

"Hazel? What's happening?" His voice cracked.

His sister stumbled forward.

"Nico, touch me," she said.

"What?"

"Just do it."

Nico moved his finger forward, and gently brushed Hazel's cheek. She flinched, and Nico's finger slipped straight through.

"The poison. You know what it is, don't you?"

The King.

 _"Hurry up, Ghost King!" Will's cheerful voice called to him from upstairs._

 _He pouted. "Don't call me that."_

 _Will popped out from behind a wall, causing Nico to jump. "But baby, I can be your queen."_

The Ghost King. He had been that once. He looked over at the gravestones.

Two of them stood in a row, with names in silver etched onto them. They glowed in the darkness suddenly, as if him noticing them caused them to react.

Bianca Di Angelo. Maria Di Angelo.

Nico Di Angelo.

"Nico…" Will's weak voice called out. "Please don't. You can't come back from the Phlegethon."

Will. Was fading. It was him.

He stepped forward, looking at the blazing lava-falls. In a way, it was beautiful- they coated the room with a glow. It was like stepping into a sunrise.

Hazel wiped a tear, then went up and hugged him. "I love you," she whispered into his ear

He held his sister in his arms. She had earned this life, earned the right to Paradise.

"I love you too, Hazel. Take care of Will."

He unclasped the necklace from his neck, and placed it in Hazel's hand. There was a sliver of light showing on the clock; barely a minute.

"Maybe, somehow I'll make it out." He said, slightly too loud. "After all, you know what they say about children of Hades…"

Will lifted his head slightly. Hazel's eyes widened, and she smiled softly.

"I'm sure we'll see you again, Nico."

He smiled, this time for real, and turned around.

Three steps.

Two steps.

One step.

Will's arms wrapped themselves around him. He felt Will's body tense up at the pain, but the boy held on tight.

"I love you so much. So, so, so much."

He was sobbing, and then he was sobbing, and their words tumbled over each other, declarations of love mingling in front of the pits of Hell.

"Goodbye, Will."

Nico moved to step forward, but Will's arms held on tight.

"Please don't go." His eyes, now almost translucent, plead with Nico.

Nico smiled and leaned in, letting their lips rest on each other.

Will closed his eyes.

* * *

Nico slowly extracted him from Will's arms, Luke's broken watch laying on the ground near them.

They stood at the precipice of the cliff, Will's eyes still blissfully closed, lips pursed, beautifully frozen in time.

The watch laying on the ground ticked. 3 seconds left.

As he fell, arms spread like an eagle, he saw the light of the fire catch onto Will's blond hair.

Paradise, he thought, as he felt the fire of the river wash over him. It was worth dying for.

* * *

He had spoken the words. He had killed Nico.

In the center, of the plaza, he stood. The globe of sunlight didn't rise that day, per Hades' request. In the center of the beach, the first funeral of Elysium.

 _One from Heaven, two of Hell._

He wasn't worthy of heaven. He, and Hazel, and the rest of the bastards, they were all forever tainted, of Hell. Heaven's Angel took the plunge.

 _Envenom and soothe the wrath of the King._

His Angel soothed the anger of death; his wrath soothed by the Muse of the Pit, poisoned by Will's toxic love.

 _Astray, Midway, in journey one fell._

Just like the riddle. They entered Hell together sick, and walked out healthy and broken.

 _Then, through Passion's kiss and sting,_

"I love you."

 _The bells of Death once more shall ring."_

The bells tolled. Will wept.


	8. Epilogue

"I dreamed of you again, you know."

His voice bounced off the walls, cascading downwards in an echoing spiral.

"I saw you, again, the first time in months. On the beach again. You stumbled out of the waves, as if formed by the froth itself, onto the shore. And this time, instead of letting you fall onto the sand, I was there to catch you."

His voice dripped with exhaustion. He didn't care.

"You smiled at me, I know that, because I felt myself smiling back. I buried my nose into your hair, and held you tight, and felt your pulse underneath my fingers. Yet, it's as if I can't remember the feel of your lips, or your eyes- when I focus in, they vanish like ghosts.

Time doesn't seem to pass anymore. They've all moved on; after all, you were hardly there. A few weeks here, gone, dust in the wind of eternity. Even Hazel's lips no longer quiver when we walk by your apartment, and she stares ahead with clear eyes untainted with tears.

I should, too. But I can't. Even in eternity, it's too soon."

He knows it's insane. It's been a month since Nico fell from the clifftop. Not fell, he corrected himself. Jumped, chose to jump. As if that made it ache less.

"I remember you used to talk in your dreams. Your insecurities poured out to an audience you didn't know existed. You always thought you were the lucky one, and were worried that you weren't enough for me- that somehow I was the perfect angel, and you were just a burden I carried."

He chokes on the word burden. There is no reason; just the thought of Nico, moments before plummeting into the ground, thinking he was a burden.

"I know you can't hear me anymore, and I can't hear you. I think about that a lot; what were the last words that passed from your lips? I can't even remember. You gave up Paradise for me, and I can't fucking remember your voice, your words, you."

His voice is cracking now. He knows soon, like every other night, a firm and gentle hand, maybe Percy or Hazel, will hold his and guide him back home, uttering soothing nothings in his ear.

"You didn't even say goodbye; one second you were in my arms, and the next, you were gone."

He feels them now, his tears spilling into the chasm, and a hand clasped around his. He doesn't turn yet; he desperately wants to pretend its Nico, and that when he turns, it will be his eyes that look back. He imagines fiercely; that the hand tracing circles in his palm, that the warm body just inches away from him, the voice calling him to go home, that it's Nico.

And then he sees a strand of blond hair in the corner of his eye, and the illusion is broken. Luke holds him as he sobs.

* * *

Gone. The sound reverberates, and is gone. Then, the unmistakable drip of water, a few drops, slipping onto the ground.

He won't try to cry back again; nothing ever escapes the Pit. He hasn't seen anything, felt anything, in forever and forevermore.

And so Nico sits, forever silent, forever longing, listening to the final drops slip onto the ground next to him. His Hell, orchestrated to the symphony of Will's tears.

 **A/N: So, yeah this is the end of this story; hope you enjoyed it. I hope to be putting up/writing a few more short stories, so if for some reason you enjoy extra tears with your coffee, check out my other stuff (one of which is already up). As always, reviews are greatly appreciated, and I'm super thankful to reviewers, favorite and followers, and everyone who even bothered to click on this story :]**


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